3 things to declutter after reading Marie Kondo
West’s fascination with Marie Kondo made me religiously stalk her on social media. Enamored by her method to cleanse, I came across this quote that ignited parts of me with utmost fascination, ‘So if you’re too afraid to look into the scary attic in your mind, look into the scary attic in your home. It will be a portal, a doorway, that will take you into the parts of yourself that you’ve been afraid to look at.’
This quote not only made me declutter and donate 16 bags of my belongings to new homes, but it also helped me to relook and cleanse multiple lines of my life, a healing of sorts.
An attempt to declutter three possible avenues, helped me create space for the new, opening a world of possibilities.
Declutter toxic relations
In many situations, we may find ourselves in an environment that sparks certain actions, memories, resulting in unhealthy habits. The realization dawns with time through an illness or prolonged trauma that remains unaddressed.
A change of environment through a physical move or mental rewiring could help understand the development of toxicity in the first place. It is here where we need to reset and rethink patterns that have become us. People who fail to engage in inner work could find themselves constantly struggling to address what is truly within.
Taking time to identify boundaries is essential. Letting go of the idea that you need to fix people and understanding that you are codependent could be of aid. Through boundary setting, we need to constantly check in mentally to release the emotional clutter that clogs us.
The Dutch call it “Gezelligheid”. A feeling of warmth, connection when you are in a relaxed space. One can attract this warmth by working towards an intimate set of friends or maybe developing habits that give a much-needed color into our life. Deciding who to include and not also is a process of decluttering.
Konmari magic
Wabi-sabi, Japandi decor, and its rich philosophies also increased my fascination with Marie Kondo. She became a nationwide success through her lifestyle philosophy on decluttering. She focuses on the idea of keeping things that ‘Spark joy’.
The focus on this suddenly shifts from quantity to quality. The fact that decluttering our homes is a process and not an endpoint helps us to understand and invite things that truly spark joy.
The focus once again is on time. If we can establish a lifestyle, we can focus on acquiring other skills and spend our time wisely. Hence, decluttering our homes impacts us majorly, as wisely quoted, ‘You can’t do work on yourself and not do work on the space you live. And you can’t do work on the space you live in and not do work on yourself.’
Both are interrelated and are responsible for our well-being.
The concept of Ama in Ayurveda
Agni(fire) aids the body in digestion and keeps the Prana or life force alive. Ama, in opposition to Agni, is responsible for detrimental factors leading to ill health. Ama in traces comes into the body through fatigue, generalized aches, and even skin blemishes.
As Ama begins to clog within, the body experiences a loss of intelligence at an internal level. Poor diet, repressed emotions, detrimental lifestyle all contribute, like drops into an ocean. The idea to rid this clutter comes from the powerful concept of Prana. A life-giving force that stimulates and opens the body through breathwork.
Conscious alignment through Yoga, Pranayama, regulating lifestyle, and inviting sattva(light) by practicing self-love could be more important than we imagine it to be. We need to declutter factors that impede the production of Agni that lead to the production of chi and life-saving Prana. Regular retreats, supervised cleanses such as Panchakarma(five actions of purification), and a conscious lifestyle could help declutter toxins that produce imbalances in the body.
